For two centuries after the Automatic War , the land shook. The ton-storms were worse in those days, just after the war, and whole regions collapsed into the sea. Nearly a third of the continent was lost in this way, and what remained was too dangerous for habitation. The survivors of the Automatic War were forced to take refuge on distant islands and piecemeal flotillas, artificial atolls, pack ice, and what few territories remained untouched by the devastation. It was a period of history fraught with desperation and hardship, a time when hope was nearly lost.

      And then Kij returned, not as a complete goddess, but as a presence among those who had kept her faith throughout the dark years of that forgotten age. Concealed from the eyes of Nigh, she shed her miraculous light across the cold, cratered land and brought forth new life, new green places and wild spaces unseen for generations. The great storms diminished and the land settled, and slowly people grew bold enough to venture beyond its shores. These were the Solinar, or Sun People, and by working through them instead of over them, Kij took a form Nigh could not see. These favored souls brought life back to the land, and for three centuries they lead the re-colonization of the Erdani mainland, which had been farthest from the war. They established the provinces of Erdanis, Caefax, and Narada, and made a great effort to attract other survivors from more distant lands. Unfortunately, one of these turned out to be Tam-Ara, the Decider.

      She claimed to be the last of her kind, an immortal kuil super-soldier from the time of the Automatic War. Backing her claim was a division of war machines which obeyed her every command, and who quickly put down anyone who questioned her authority-to-be. These were the 99 Red Checkers, a force she brought with her to answer the call of the Solinar. She saw them as the traitorous cult of a doomed goddess, and slew those sent to welcome her. Only the plodding pace of her Machine soldiers slowed the subjugation of the outer colonies, and what forces could be mustered to challenge them stood no chance. To their credit, the Solinar and their allies were able to fox Tam-Ara’s terrible legion for years, and whittled their number to 88 by the time their capitals were physically demolished. The truces and alliances were shattered along with them, and there were enough who bowed to the Decider’s might to turn upon those who still stood against her. As a final, spectacular display of her power, she used ballistic bombardment to destroy the province of Narada in an afternoon. Erdanis and Caefax surrendered the next day. They now form the seat of her power, which extends as far as the range of her ballistic weapons. This is the Tamaran Triad.

      Those who would not be ruled took their chances in a wave of eastward exodus, daring the unexplored interior wilderness to find new land far from the Decider’s brutal conquest. They established the new coastal provinces of Ran-Lir and Tropaz, while others ventured north beyond the Diamondback to settle in unwanted frozen wastes, or south to the fringe of the lunar wave path. The Decider considered this emigration to be an act of both war and treason, and now seeks to expand her arsenal and her armies in an effort to pursue her enemies to their new home, and finish the war. In turn, the free people of the eastern territories have begun to amass their own defenses and artifacts, and have even offered a truce to the remnants of other divine factions. Both have scavenging bands scouring the ruins of the Creator State for wonder-weapons of all kinds, along with spies and agents of various sorts in each others’ territories. The years of build-up to this invasion are the present timeline, and the backdrop of its plots.



    

      Tam-Ara, daughter of the hero Tan-Am and the last surviving member of the fallen Creator State, has declared herself the world’s rightful ruler. With an arsenal of sophisticated weapons and automatic soldiers, she emerged from the wasteland of Axis two hundred years ago and laid claim to half the mainland, destroying an entire country just to demonstrate her power to any others who might resist. She now has control of Erdanis, Caefax, and Haun, three of the mainland’s most populous territories, and seeks to complete her expansion through Arthandur and into Tropaz and Ran-Lir. She wants it all, and has become even more of a tyrannical terror-princess over the course of her conquest and its many setbacks. Only her violent temper and subsequent tactical errors have given those who oppose her a fighting chance.

      Redeemable: Manipulated by the kuil of the Arcanar Guild, Tam-Ara is merely a figurehead pawn and a key to their technological access. It was they who extracted her from the preservation vault in Axis, and who now use her to explain the wonders restored by their guild. She isn’t exactly an innocent victim but has the potential to turn against the guild and become an ally. The sword arm behind her is making sure she stays loyal and is actually controlled by the guild - she obeys them because if she doesn't, it will cut her head off. Her ability to control nilkind is also of great benefit to the Arcanar, who rely on her to command the vast numbers of scavengers that bring them relics from the wasteland.

      Irredeemable: A vicious bitch to the core, and all-around atrocity connoisseur. In this case she has fully realized her potential and become corrupted by its power. She emerged from Axis all on her own, and her dim view of the world perpetuated her ultimate desire to conquer and re-make it. She is entirely responsible for her actions and takes pride in her cruelty, and will go down fighting. She controls the Arcanar Guild purely for the sake of having them bring her artifacts and parts from the wasteland of Axis, objects she adds to her great hoard of weapons, vehicles, and most of all ballistic missiles. When she has enough of these, she'll conquer the next territory.

      Capabilities: The Decider’s chief strength is that of a military leader, not so much by talent but by her innate ability to command military hardware and nilkind though a special language, Guide. Nilkind who hear her voice are compelled to obey, giving her an extraordinary degree of control over her territories, or any population that picks up Radio Channel D. She also knows how to use or operate every type of Creator State artifact, be it weapon, device, or vehicle, and has a vast hoard of these to deal with her enemies in all sorts of colourful ways – planes, tanks, ballistic missiles, etc. This makes her a veritable one-woman army, though she’s loathe to make use of her toys unless absolutely necessary. Even without this arsenal, she’s a formidable fighter and has the strength, agility, and fortitude of a super-soldier. She doesn’t appear to age or fall ill, and even heals at an unnatural rate on the rare instances in which she’s injured.

      Forces: Technically the Head of State (referred to as Her Excellency), she has a number of loyal (and disloyal) armies at her disposal at any given time, and orders them to carry out her will by screaming at them on any number of radios in her amusement park command center, located in the Twin Paradise. She’s also head of the Arcanar Guild, a mafioso cadre of artificers whom she’s taught the ways of technological ‘wizardry’, and who hunt down and destroy practitioners of true magic. Lastly, and certainly the worst, is her army of 88 golem-like war machines, the Iron Checkers, deployed in groups to tackle those deemed truly reprehensible or difficult to intimidate. These are incredibly slow, but capable of destroying entire cities within a week or so.




    

      Rym is full of vast unclaimed territories, but Fallen Axis is the major focal point of countless scavengers, artificers, adventurers, and fortune-seekers, for it contains the wealth of the lost Bygone. Ostensibly controlled by the Arcanar Guild, it’s a blighted wasteland of lifeless desert, ton-craters, and ruined cities, and it’s absolutely full of ancient wonders that people would kill for. The Decider in particular has vast numbers of agents scouring the dead landscape for a bounty list of specific things, be they components of her current project, weapons of the ancient world, or game-changing artifacts that haven’t been seen in centuries. You better have a permit, though, if you’re going here. Otherwise, her goons are going to feel perfectly justified in killing you and taking anything you might have found in the territory she’s claimed as her own. That’s not to say there aren’t dozens of scavenging crews operating outside of guild fiat, but officially it’s even risker to go scrounging without a paid permit.

      Guild Work: This is what the Arcanar Guild is all about – if you work for them, they might send you here if you’re good enough. Working for them can be very profitable, especially if you hand over what you find without question. They might even let you keep a few trinkets if they’re not on the bounty list, but don’t you dare try and hide anything. Maybe it’s better that way – the stuff you find is mostly incomprehensible junk that only their artificers really know how to fix or use. For you, the reward comes in favor and pazools, the triangular token-coins that can buy much more desirable objects from their vendomats. But the real prizes are on the bounty list, and if you find one you might just get invited to live in the Decider’s paradise islands, enjoying the benefits of guild favor and her gratitude.

      Off the Books: Oh, aren’t you ambitious? It’s a big territory, and the Arcanar Guild isn’t everywhere. They only control a few major ports off this dead landscape and if you’ve got your own, you might have the minerals or even the knowledge to keep and use what you find. Imagine what a Water Doubler or Centipede Tank would fetch on the open market, or from some gorg collector in a neutral territory like Haun? You might find a whole shipping crate full of life-extension pills, or weapons of the Bygone you could use to get revenge on the one who killed your friends. You might even find some new friends of a similar motivation, but be careful. If the guild catches you wandering around without a permit they will leave your dry bones out as a warning to others. The secret is not getting caught, or maybe just killing the ones who catch you and taking their stuff.

      Encounters: This is a high-level area, you could say, with rival high-level opposition, encounters, and even natural hazards like ton-storms and crazed Machines. You’ll need a lot of survival gear, knowledge of ancient kuilyat and iconic languages, and a fistful of pazools to pay for certain points of entry or access. The place was a plutocratic meritocracy, which means that there’s coin slots everywhere. You need to invest if you’re going to get anywhere, and this is the only place where those triangular coins are good for anything. Much of the wasteland is still unexplored – they’ve been looting for two hundred years and they’ve barely scratched the surface, but that might be due to the lack of skilled looters. The old city domes are particularly dangerous, as they’re still full of glass eyes and tin ears, and the biggest concentration of competition. There are no real settlements outside of scavenger encampments or guild juggernauts, always moving from place to place in search of what the wind might have uncovered.

      Ruins: There are five large city domes – Aeon, Profectus, Halcyon, Zin, and Argos. This is where you’ll find all the best stuff, and have a little shelter from the wasteland, but it’s also where you’ll find a lot of potential competition. Other scavengers, often more experienced, will be looking for the same loot, and even if you’ve got a permit they might not think twice about scrunking you and taking it off your corpse. Of course, that goes both ways, so you might save yourself some trouble by just hunting them down yourself and doing the same to them. It happens all the time. The biggest scores are the sealed shelters and caches filled with Quiet Air, the gas preservative which filled many of the underground regions to ‘preserve’ them from the outside world on the Day of Victory. Stuff in those places is still in mind condition, and will tend to fetch the highest price or the greatest gratitude from Her Excellency.